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Photo: Neo-Liberalism: The Ideology At The Root Of All Our Problems
Lest we forget: We are in the midst of the third great economic collapse since the Second World War: all three have taken place since Thatcherism launched its great crusade
The poisonous, anti- common good Thatcherite values: A sample
Privatisation, deregulation, self-regulation, marketisation, free trade, individualism, selfishness, greed, loads of money, public is bad, private is good…
“Thatcherism was a national catastrophe, and we remain trapped by its consequences. As her former Chancellor Geoffrey Howe put it: “Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible.”
We are in the midst of the third great economic collapse since the Second World War: all three have taken place since Thatcherism launched its great crusade. This current crisis has roots in the Thatcherite free market experiment, which wiped out much of the country’s industrial base in favour of a deregulated financial sector…
It is certainly true that there were more people languishing in long-term unemployment last year than there were in all forms of unemployment 40 years ago. In large part, this is a consequence of Thatcherism’s emptying communities of millions of secure, skilled industrial jobs. Large swathes of Britain – mining villages, steel towns and so on – were devastated, and never really recovered. Even when Britain was supposedly booming, the old industrial heartlands had high levels of what is rather clinically described as “economic inactivity”.
Five million people now languish on social housing waiting lists, while billions of pounds of housing benefit line the pockets of private landlords charging rip-off rents. The scarcity of housing turns communities against each other, as immigrants or anyone deemed less deserving are scapegoated. But the guilt really lies with the Thatcherite policy of right-to-buy and failure to replace the stock that was sold off.
We could go on. Britain was one of the most equal Western European countries before the Thatcherite project began, and is now one of the most unequal. Thatcherism is not just alive and well: it courses through the veins of British political life. The current government goes where Thatcherism did not dare in its privatisation of the NHS and sledgehammering of the welfare state.
The challenge ahead is the same as it was yesterday: to tear down the whole edifice of Thatcherism, heal Britain of the damage done, and build a country run in the interests of working people. It’s a fight we must all fight. The champagne is on ice until we win it.”
Read more:
Owen Jones: Thatcherism was a national catastrophe that still poisons us
Margaret Thatcher: A Reflection
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Humanity and humane values?
Margaret Thatcher: Born Margaret Roberts on 13 October 1925, died on 8 April 2013
Her legacy is public division, private selfishness and a cult of greed that together shackle the human spirit.
“When she arrived in Downing Street in 1979 she talked about replacing discord with harmony. She may briefly have meant it, but the harmony she sought in the long term was one whose terms were set overwhelmingly in the interests of the British business class as she perceived them. She disdained the public realm and presided over the growth of the cult of marketplace success as the foundation of a good society – a low-tax, home-owning, privatised, high-carbon, possessive, individualist, winner-takes-all financial model whose failure haunts the choices still facing this country today. Much was wrong with the Britain she inherited in 1979, undemocratic union power among them, and many things, though not wrong in themselves, were unsustainable without radical change, including some nationalised utilities. Britain would have had to alter radically in the 1980s and 90s, and the process would have been hard and controversial. But, as Germany and other northern nations have shown, economic dynamism has been possible without the squandering of social cohesion that Mrs Thatcher promoted.
In the last analysis, though, her stock in trade was division. By instinct, inclination and effect she was a polariser. She glorified both individualism and the nation state, but lacked much feeling for the communities and bonds that knit them together. When she spoke, as she often did, about "our people", she did not mean the people of Britain; she meant people who thought like her and shared her prejudices. She abhorred disorder, decadence and bad behaviour but she was the empress ruler of a process of social and cultural atomism that has fostered all of them, and still does.
The governments that followed have struggled to put a kinder and more cohesive face on the forces she unleashed and to create stability and validity for the public realm that yet remains. New Labour offered a first response. The coalition is attempting a second draft in grimmer circumstances, and there will be others. There can certainly be no going back to the failed postwar past with which Margaret Thatcher had to wrestle. But there should be no going back to her own failed answer either. She was an exceptionally consequential leader, in many ways a very great woman. There should be no dancing on her grave but it is right there is no state funeral either. Her legacy is of public division, private selfishness and a cult of greed, which together shackle far more of the human spirit than they ever set free.”
Read more:
Margaret Thatcher: the lady and the land she leaves behind
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-editorial
Margaret Thatcher left a dark legacy that has still not disappeared
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-hugo-young/print
The Consequences of her legacy:
Did she put the “Great” back into “Great Britain?” This is the question I asked myself a few years back:
On 3 June 2011 I wrote a blog under the title of “The Broken Model”:
“Do you remember that Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady!! She told the Brits that she was going to put the “Great” back into the “Great” Britain. Do you remember? Then, she told us this can only happen if we accept and implement the “Washington Consensus”, the so-called dreaded neo-liberalism. She told us that there was no alternative. She told us we will all prosper and develop more fairly and equitably. She won election after elections. Everything was privatised, deregulated, self-regulated. Industry, manufacturing, (the real economy) was destroyed. Instead, the banks and the bankers were encouraged to rule the world. The economists with no principles and values were “bought” and the business schools, such as Harvard and Columbia were showered with money to act as “Cheer Leaders” for the dreaded neo-liberalism (see the Inside Job for evidence). Communities were dis-mantled and dis-organised. We were told that there is nothing as a society and community. We are all in it just for ourselves, we were told. Destructive competition at the expense of life-enhancing cooperation, collaboration and dialogue was greatly prompted. We were told to say no to love, kindness, generosity, sympathy and empathy and say yes to selfishness, individualism and narcissism, as these values will fire the engine of capitalism and wealth creation! In short, the hell with the common good, we were encouraged to believe.
We were brained-washed. Our other Prime Ministers repeated her nonsense and have carried on her footsteps. It is now over 30 years since the neo-liberalism experiment in Britain. Are we any “Greater” than we were in 1979? Are we any fairer or more equitable? The country is nearly bankrupt, with public and private debt at unprecedented levels, with greatest levels of poverty and wealth disparity ever. The house of neo-liberal capitalism is now at its nadir of decadence.”
You see, all those interested in life’s bigger picture, have been saying the same, over and over. The neo-liberals are not in touch with humanity. They will prostitute all in the interest of profit maximization, cost minimization, highest return to the shareholders, and the biggest and juiciest bonuses for the CEOs and their lackeys.
Margaret Thatcher: humanity and humane values?
http://www.gcgi.info/blog/347-margaret-thatcher-humanity-and-humane-values
The Inconvenient Truth: Capitalism with No Moral Compass
http://www.gcgi.info/blog/346-the-inconvenient-truth-capitalism-with-no-moral-compass
On Thatcher’s favourite economists:
The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman
http://www.gcgi.info/blog/144-the-destruction-of-our-world-and-the-lies-of-milton-friedman
On Privatisation and Deregulation
The shaming of privatisation and deregulation, the so-called neo-liberalism
Whatever Happened to the Moral Compass? Britain engulfed in corruption
http://www.gcgi.info/blog/210-whatever-happened-to-moral-compass-britain-engulfed-in-corruption-
On Thatcher’s followers in Europe!
In Search of Virtue in Europe: The Tragic Consequences of the Value-free, Nonvirtous Leadership
Across Europe, political leaders have lost the trust of their people: The retreat of virtue has become a plague of our times. Greed is legitimate
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Across Europe, political leaders have lost the trust of their people: The retreat of virtue has become a plague of our times. Greed is legitimate
Lest we forget: As an ancient proverb says 'The fish rots from the head', meaning, that if the servant is disorderly, it is because the master is so; if the citizens are greedy and corrupt, it is because their leaders are so.
“There was a time when to live a life virtuously was well understood. It embraced personal integrity, commitment to a purpose that was higher than personal gain, a degree of selflessness and even modesty. Those at the top may have got there through ruthlessness and ambition, but they understood that to lead was to set an example and that involved demonstrating better qualities than simply looking after yourself.- In Pursuit of Fairness and Responsibilty for the “Top and the Bottom” in today’s Value-free Britain
- The Fairest Question: Why should the taxpayer fund 'lifestyles' like those of the Sir James Crosby, Andy Hornby, and Lord Stevenson?
- The Immorality of Value-free Neo-liberalism
- Was slavery not abolished?
- In Pursuit of the Golden Rule